


Stories of the Second Self: Source Code

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [128]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:02:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22675261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Jolene Walker joins her son and widowed father for a camping trip, despite her complications with sunlight. Jolene's father informs her of a healthcare, but he assures that the worst is behind him. Then, the three generations of Walkers encounter a variety of wildlife that Jolene's father, a retired park ranger, can't place. Daring to seek out the source, Jolene discovers another mythological creature made real by Alter Idem.
Series: Alter Idem [128]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Source Code

"You doin' okay?" Jolene's dad asked her, as she started setting up the tent.

Two or three times a year, Jolene's dad would take her son, Terry out camping. This was the first time Jolene came along with, largely because Terry's begging finally worked.

"Yeah, I'm handling it," Jolene replied, and then pointed to a package. "Terry, could you get another peg for me?"

Terry, who came over from the fire pit and got a peg out to pass over, had turned ten not long ago. For a human kid raised by a single mother vampire living with five other vampires, he was about as well adjusted a kid as Jolene could've hoped for. However, he was keenly aware of the back and forth shuttling between the historical mortuary Jolene lived in and her dad's house.

It helped Jolene's father feel connected, after Jolene's mother died a couple years ago, but Terry also deserved to have a whole family. Even if that meant having to be out during the day. Her father had worked for the state park service before he'd retired, and so he chose a park with the most coverage from the sun.

Not sufficient by a long shot, it was nonetheless a sweet thought, and so Jolene came along with her dad and Terry. Jolene covered herself with her polarized face shield and a new tight-weave outdoor suit she'd gotten from Friends of Fantastic Figures, so as to no longer look like she were exploring the antarctic.

"I guess now's as good a time to tell you as any," Jolene's dad said, while unpacking things from his truck camper.

His tone reminded Jolene of when he told her that her mother died, causing Jolene to stop everything and listen to him.

"I'd been feeling my age," her dad went on after seeing he had her and Terry's attention. "And I had a pretty good scare at my last checkup."

"What's wrong," Jolene asked, sitting down cross-legged.

"Oh, nothin' now," her father dismissed, "That's what I wanted to tell 'ya. I went and did it. Got myself started on the change."

"What change?" Terry asked.

Jolene wondered also, and silently studied her father for whatever signs might be emerging.

"Kinda disgusting that they gotta inject you with saliva," her dad cryptically continued, "But it beats them bittin' me every day."

Rumors abounded that a few vampires learned how to turn others. Having met newly turned people, it gave Jolene a sense that wasn't what her father was talking about. As with spontaneous turnings, a person would be dead for three days and then awaken as a vampire.

Her dad had chosen something else. "I've been doin' the shots for three weeks now, and I never felt better. They tell me it's another week before I'm finished. Got my BPA card already."

"A werewolf, dad?" Jolene asked him, after seeing the early stages of hair growth on his neck. "What made you do it?"

"The doctor said all my symptoms might mean pancreatic cancer," her father said, invoking an intake of breath from Terry, before he added, "Tests showed that was a good possibility. So, I decided not to take chances. Coulda gone the other routes, but the giant growth hormones take too long. Angels and Fae are real secretive about how they turn people, or they don't know, and so it was this or nothin'. Some group helped with me gettin' myself registered, and gave me the shots."

"It's okay," Terry beamed, "You're still my granddad."

"I'll support you regardless," Jolene assured, "Just know what you're getting into. There's still a lot of hate out there for werewolves."

"I know," her dad nodded. "This group's helpin' me with that too."

Jolene was about to ask what group her father meant, when a loud animal's cry rang from elsewhere in the woods.

"The hell is that?" Jolene's father asked, turning about.

"You don't know?" Jolene wondered, as she stood up.

"Heard a lotta animal calls," her dad replied, "Ain't nothin' like that anywhere in Ohio. 'Course, that before all this Alter Idem stuff. Still can't imagine what it'd be unless we're getting dinosaurs or something'."

In the distance, Jolene saw a large tree suddenly swing to one side and sway back and forth until settling down from the force. From it moved something that would've been a shadow, but for the infrared body heat it gave off. Whatever it was the thing was large and it flew.

"Do you think we should try a different camping stop, dad?" Jolene asked, her eyes affixed on the fast-moving thermal glow.

"I'ma figure out what that is," her father answered, going to the camper.

"Uh, dad," Jolene addressed him. "You're not not superhuman yet. Let me go look. Terry, you're going in the camper with grandpa, and stay there. I mean it."

"You want the gun?" her dad offered, having pulled out his rifle case.

Jolene looked off to her side for a moment, before answering, "Yeah, I think I should. It's been a long time since shooting, but I think I can remember how."

Terry gave no argument and headed into the camper right away. Jolene's dad followed and closed the door securely. Jolene wasn't sure how well it would hold up to something like a bear, and that's why she chose to go check on whatever this thing was.

The ground was easy for Jolene to tread in this forest, due to the old age of trees preventing much light through the canopy. She put the box of shells into her sun suit pocket and pulled out rounds one at a time to load the rifle. Her father also brought a forty-four caliber revolver out of habit from his park service days, but it made sense that he held onto it in the camper.

A sudden whipping, like a towel or sheet snapping, caught Jolene's ear, before she caught the sound of something raking against tree bark. Her hearing wasn't any different from when she was alive nearly five years ago, and so she figured the thing had to be close.

Then, came a crunching followed by scratching on bark. By the time Jolene stepped out to where she thought she'd have line of sight with the source, another shoving against a tree happened and she saw it soar over her head.

"Are you shitting me?" she exclaimed up at the outline of what, for lack of a better description, was a dragon.

It landed on yet another tree, which allowed Jolene to see more detail. The dragon used its legs and wings to cling to the tree some thirty feet off the ground. Four fingers made up the wing, with the first of those being half the length of the others and ending with a short curved claw. Three more fingers from each wing gripped the bark, as the dragon nosed around an opening of what might've been a bird's nest hollowed out from the trunk.

On its legs, Jolene noticed four toes more or less set like a bird's or maybe a dinosaur, with the reversed toe serving like a climbing hook. Yet, there were two more toes that were only noticeable for the forward curving claws one the outside edge of each foot near the heel.

When she was a girl, Jolene's father told her about the kinds of tracks animals left. She'd forgotten the details up until now, for none of it held any interest, but she recalled that no animal had more than five fingers or toes. Then, Jolene realized that the dragon was looking at her.

The pair of horns projecting backwards from its brow added to the cross expression of the dragon, as it bore down its gaze onto her.

"Don't move," came a baritone voice behind her.

Jolene could tell whoever it was behind her was a giant for the height of the voice, and asked, "Who are you and what makes you an expert on dragons?"

"I teach mythology and folk lore," replied the deep voice in a whisper. "I'm Dr. Paul Appelbaum, University of Cincinnati."

"I'm Jolene Walker," she offered her name in turn. "And my job's not in mythology, so I don't know what to do about this."

The dragon let go of the tree, and smartly twirled its body around before landing on the ground like a cat. Its gaze never left Jolene throughout the action, and then it reared back its head high still staring at her.

"Okay, any other Jurassic Park advice?" Jolene scolded under her breath.

"I think we're safe," this Paul Appelbaum answered.

"What makes you say that?" Jolene asked, still holding perfectly still.

"Otherwise we'd be incinerated about now," Paul replied.

"Really, they breathe fire?" Jolene laughed uncomfortably.

"Well," Paul muttered, "Breathe is not the right word, but yeah something like that. As part of a research project I'd been studying what animals had changed in Alter Idem to resemble creatures of myth. Up to now I'd never seen anything passing for a dragon."

"How do you know about the fire thing, then?" Jolene asked, as she watched the dragon's tail sweep from one side to the other.

Found traces of a burn a few weeks ago. The conical dispersion pattern looked like something a flamethrower would do, but it appeared to have been used on a badger.

"Any reason why it's still gawking at me?" Jolene asked, ready to shift her grip on the rifle.

"Hard to say which of us it's staring at," Paul said.

That was enough to make Jolene uneasily turn around to see not just the giant, Paul Appelbaum, but a few other people as well. A young woman with lusciously thick brown hair, even down her neck, revealing her to be a werewolf. A red headed angelic man and a Fae woman with seven-point antlers also stood at Paul's side.

A thump drew Jolene back to the dragon, which had taken a step with one of its wings. Another step followed, along with its rear legs, with the latter third of the dragon's tail raised and twitching.

"Okay, I'm not taking chances," Jolene advised, and adjusted her hands to chamber a round in the rifle.

The dragon's head dropped low, as it pounced forward, shifting its advance from one side to the other. Jolene had one round loaded, but then the dragon made an advancing leap and, with an outward sweep of a wing, had snatched the rifle out of Jolene's considerable vampire grip.

Almost pulled with the rifle, Jolene stumbled off to the side before catching herself. She stared with dread, as the dragon raised the rifle up by the barrel to study it. The dragon then tossed it away spinning lengthwise. It made the last couple steps necessary to loom over Jolene, with its head several feet above hers and not yet at its full height.

"Uhh," Jolene verbalized, "What do I do now?"

"You won't believe what I'm sensing from it," Paul said, "I don't think this is just some animal that Alter Idem transformed into a myth incarnate."

"That's not helping," Jolene whispered.

"Honestly, Jolene," Paul sounded assuring, "We'll be okay. It seems to understand who and what we are."

"I think I should still be worried then," Jolene replied, in consideration that she too qualified as a dangerous predator.

The dragon lowed its muzzle to nudge at Jolene, and then stood between her and the other four Pentacastes. Wondering why it had singled her out for separation, Jolene then watched as the dragon gently pushed the others away from each other, using its snout, its tail, or one of its wing finger holds.

To her amazement, Jolene gauged that the dragon had spaced them out to equal distances around itself. Then, she got a larger jolt.

"Mom, where are you?" Terry's voice called out, and he came rushing into view. "Whoa!"

"Terry," Jolene hissed out and urgently waved out her hand. "Don't get any closer!"

Except the dragon already noticed Jolene's son and padded toward him.

It paced around Terry a couple times, all the while Terry frigidly staring at the huge creature. Then the dragon nosed Terry forward. At first Terry resisted, but a firmer nudge nearly knocked him over, and so Terry tentatively walked as directed by the dragon.

Goading Jolene's son into the middle of the five of them, the dragon then paced around the pentagram of people it fashioned. A low grumble sounded from the dragon, as thought it approved of the scene it crafted from the curious people who stumbled across it.

At last, the dragon crouched down, its leg muscles bunching, and jumped into the air. Despite the close confines relative to the dragon's size, it had no difficulty flapping its wings and navigating through the forest. Jolene saw how it precisely maneuvered between trees, before climbing in altitude to soar above them.

Thinking the dragon had flown out of sight, Jolene was startled by seeing and hearing the dragon zip overhead above the tree line and call out as it flew off again.


End file.
